Since the passage of the HITECH Act as part of the 2009 stimulus package, federal policymakers have focused primarily on the myriad programs designed to move healthcare providers into the digital future.

But recently, and especially with the release of Meaningful Use Stage 2, that attention has expanded to include ways of getting patients to plug in. That effort was the focus of an ONC Town Hall on Tuesday afternoon at the 2012 mHealth Summit.

Moderating the discussion was Lygeia Ricciardi, director of the ONC’s Office of Consumer eHealth. In opening remarks, she described how the consumer engagement landscape can be looked at in one of two ways. On one hand, she said, surveys that report that only 10 percent of Americans use a personal health record are a clear indication of how much work lies ahead for health IT proponents. But on the other hand, surveys indicating that 80 percent of internet users look for health information at one time or another point to just how much potential there is for getting consumers to take greater responsibility for their personal health information.

For much of the session, speakers from the ONC described the range of work that has revolved around the launch and use of the Blue Button. Launched in 2010 by the Department of Veterans Affairs, the initiative is considered one of the most successful examples of consumer engagement to date.

According to Pierce Graham-Jones, Innovator in Residence at the Department of Health and Human Services, in only two years upwards of one million users have downloaded their personal health information via the Blue Button, and he and his colleagues took turns both explaining how the initiative worked and describing the steps being taken for the future.

For example, Damon Davis, a special assistant to the Office of Consumer eHealth, described how the office has engaged developers from across the private sector to devise more user-friendly ways of accessing health information via the Blue Button, while Erin Poetter Siminario, an ONC policy analyst, reviewed the range of materials that have been developed to help consumers understand their rights and opportunities when it comes to using that information.

When the conversation was opened to members of the audience, the discussion quickly expanded to include questions and comments about privacy and security and payment coverage for new forms of communication between doctors and patients, as well as questions that looked at the issue of data ownership in the digital age.

It was also announced that next February the ONC will release its draft consumer engagement plan for a 45-day period of public comment.